Nightbloom
by Tabbi-Katt
Summary: Small towns are made for small moments, and it's during one night in Hamil that two different people find two different ways to not be alone.


**This fic is little more than the writing equivalent of a doodle, but I'm several years late to the Xill** **i** **a party and want to offer some crumbs alongside everyone else's feast.**

 **Somebody talk with me about how Elize is best girl.**

* * *

When Jude went searching for Milla in Hamil, he found the self-proclaimed god standing across from the shops with such a deep look of longing and childish greed that he had to suppress a laugh.

"If you want," he said as he walked up to her side, "I could buy you something to eat."

She glanced at him briefly, then her gaze slid back to the stalls of produce and other necessities. "So you're offering a favour," she replied, stoically as expected but with her own unique mixture of wonder. Her head tilted a bit in thought. "I haven't had much practice in returning those."

No, he couldn't imagine she would. Accepting gifts or offers of worship seemed much more fitting to her than friendly favours.

"You don't need to repay me, it's just–" He nearly said _it's just what friends do_ , but didn't know how she'd take such a statement and covered his quick falter with, "–just fruit. One or two shouldn't cost much."

Milla seemed to consider this, yet said nothing. Of course, she was fully capable of buying any food she wanted with her own money, she didn't _need_ Jude to buy her anything. She knew it, he did too. But such simple things as giving niceties to other and eating good food were nice, _normal_ activities, and he needed normal tonight. He needed to bring the last few hectic days back under some control.

That, and part of him worried Milla would steal something. It was (possibly) an unfounded fear. Jude hadn't known Milla for long, but he'd already formed an image of her personality being a near aggressively responsible type. But she was new and learning to other people's normal so things like hunger and (again, possibly) payment could sometimes be forgotten.

Further down the hamlet's main throughway they heard an argument already halfway started between a mother and child. A brief piece of the conversation was caught:

"I told you to stay away from that shed."

"I only looked in for a second!"

Jude nodded towards the pair as their conversation faded around a corner and said, "See? Even the locals can't resist taking something every once in a while."

They'd seen the shed on the edge of town when walking around earlier and, after asking, were told its purpose was mainly for a distillery, storage, and a place to rest in the long hours of harvest season when workers were too exhausted to walk back to their own beds. But no one lived there now, they were told, there was nothing of importance in that building at all. Besides, it was usually locked throughout the day so no one would think they could just walk in and take what didn't rightfully belong to them.

He eventually managed to convince Milla to let him buy her an apple she could enjoy in the evening, and as the day drew to a close he just enjoyed her newfound joy with the human habit of eating. But, farther into the night, when the sky had transitioned from a deep blue to a lonely grey with the merest pin pricks of stars, the side door to the aforementioned storage shed opened a few inches so very slowly to avoid the merest creak or groan of hinges. If anyone had been awake and watching they might have seen a face peer around the door, checking to assure no one was there, and then they'd see the door be shoved aside with no worries as a girl rushed out of the building and towards the orchard.

An observer could have watched the girl, hugging an indistinct shape to her chest, traipse under the trees and then slow as she aimlessly wandered and stared up at the towering canopy. At this hour of night there was no moon but the glow emanating from the above poranges was enough to see by, and if anyone had asked the girl's opinion she would have said this sight was far more beautiful than even a full moon because this only happened one short time per year. But of course no one was around to ask. She'd made sure of that.

She spent a few precious minutes admiring the view and fresh air around her. Then, taking great care to tuck her dress around her, she settled in the dew-painted grass and the clovers and for the next while remained content amongst the orchard, enjoying the aroma of ripening fruit and the subtle music of leaves rattling in the soft breeze.

"Pretty great, isn't it, Elly?" said a voice that didn't belong to the girl, to which anyone nearby might have been able to hear her answer with a soft sound in her throat, a sort of hum to indicate how happy she was tonight.

In an hour, or perhaps two if she was feeling auspicious, she would return to the shack and back to her little room, and in the morning she would be bitter again about having to be locked up, even if it was apparently for her own good, and she would once again have to be alone. But right now she enjoyed being on her own. Freedom, in some small way, meant bringing loneliness into your own control.


End file.
